The annual under-17 badminton tournament took place recently at the National Sports Centre in Douglas.

It began with the boys singles where the first round of competition consisted of four groups of either four or five players. 

Group A was won convincingly by the top-seeded player Martin Cheung who, currently ranked 10th in the UK for his age group, was always going to be tough to beat.

Runner-up in this group, winning three out of four of his matches, was Will Osbourn.

Group B was won by Edward Cheung [no relation to Martin] who won all of his games, with second spot going to Advaith ‘Adi’ Malikreddy.

Group C’s winner was Lok Yien Cheung [again no relation!] also winning all his matches, with Charlie Albiston runner-up.

The final group was won by Tommy Cheng, giving away only 34 points across all four games, with Ollie Townell heading the remainder of the group.

In the two semi-final matches Martin beat Edward comfortably 15-2, 15-3 and Tommy beat young Lok 15-9, 15-10.

The final didn’t disappoint with Cheng playing exceptionally well in the first game, keeping the score neck-and-neck until the end, ultimately losing only 13-15 to Martin Cheung. The latter showed his strength and experience in the second game, stretching his lead slightly to take it 15-11 in what was a great game to watch.

The girls’ singles was played in one group of six players. After a raft of tight results with four of the matches going to three, the final was contested by Laura Garrity and Kelly Domingo.

This turned out to be a battle of wills with Garrity edging the first game 15-14, Domingo battling back in the second to win it 15-9.

Boosting her confidence, Domingo was in her stride in the decider and although Garrity pushed her right to the end, Domingo took it 15-12.

The boys’ doubles started off with two groups. Group A had to contend with the combined might of singles finalists Cheng and Cheung, who proved too much for the remaining pairs. Second in this group, winning all but one of their matches, was Charlie Albiston and Euan McConnell.

The second group was won by Lok Yien Cheung and Edward Cheung with Ziyad Sulthan and Adi Malikreddy as runners-up again, winning all but one of their games.

The final resulted in a comfortable 15-4, 15-6 victory for Martin and Tommy.

The girls doubles was a battle between all three pairs – namely Ameya Malikreddy and Domingo, Molly Bell and Garrity and Fatima Syed and Katie Evans.

This was always going to be difficult to call with the best players on the day taking the win. Syed and Evans proved to be the pair that played consistently well, holding on for the wins in two close matches.

After losing the first game to Bell and Garrity 13-15 they came back strongly to take the next two 15-2, 15-4. Against Malikreddy and Domingo they edged away at the end to take the first game 15-12, but Malikreddy and Domingo regrouped for the second game, winning comfortably to seven.

Neither pair was prepared to give way and the third game was a true battle with Syed and Evans being pushed all the way but holding on to take the win 15-13.

The last event of the day was the mixed doubles, again played as one group of five pairs. With a lot of excellent badminton played the final came down to another head-to-head between the contenders of both the boys’ and girls’ singles finals.

This turned out to be another great battle with the first game being point for point until 13-all when Cheng and Domingo played two great points to take the first game 15-13.

Martin Cheung and Laura Garrity started the second game with a change of tactics and battled home to victory taking the final two games 15-8, 15-11 giving Martin the triple once again.